High School Seniors Display Sign Containing ‘N-Word’

PHOENIX, AZ - MAY 13: PHOENIX, AZ - MAY 13: Arizona State University graduate students are silhouetted during their graduation at Sun Devil Stadium May 13, 2009, in Tempe, Arizona. US President Barack Obama will deliver the commencement address during the ceremony where over 65,000 people are expected to attended. (Photo by Joshua Lott/Getty Images)South Forsyth High School students put up banner with a version of a racial slur as a senior prank. (Photo: Joshua Lott/Getty Images)

ATLANTA (CBS Atlanta) – A Forsyth County high school is promising to punish the students behind a senior prank that went beyond childish games.

A group of students at South Forsyth High School unveiled a banner across a campus building that contained a form of the N-Word, reports WAGA-TV.

The sign proclaimed “N***A we made it!” a reference to a lyric from a popular song by Drake.

South Forsyth senior Islam McKenzie says the students should have thought twice before making the banner. “They could have took off that word, honestly cause not all students can be, oh, that’s funny. I think that’s a joke.”

Another senior, Michael McKenzie, tells WAGA-TV he doesn’t think the students didn’t mean to be offensive. “I definitely think that they don’t understand the magnitude of it. But, I think, now that it’s got all the attention that it has that they’re going to realize real soon

Principal Jeff Cheney says surveillance video shows the students sneaking onto the campus Tuesday night to secure the sign over the gymnasium. “There’s a pretty diverse group of students who were involved in creating the banner.”

He tells the station once he saw the banner Wednesday morning he ordered it removed.

“It’s very offensive to me and I don’t want our students to be a part of that in any way, shape or form.”